Four Notre Dame Alumni Elected to House, One to Senate

Published: November 13, 2012

Author: Liquid error: internal

Four University of Notre Dame graduates were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Tuesday’s election, and alumnus Joe Donnelly of Indiana is the second Notre Dame graduate to be elected to the U.S. Senate, and the fourth to serve.

Democrat Peter Visclosky, a 1973 Notre Dame Law School graduate, won his 15th term in Congress representing District 1 in Indiana.

Republicans Peter King and Michael Kelly also were re-elected to their 11th and second terms in New York and Pennsylvania, respectively. King graduated from the Law School in 1968, and Kelly earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the College of Arts and Letters in 1970. Additionally, Keith Rothfus, a 1990 alumnus of the Law School, became the first Republican elected to Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District in four decades.

Democrat Donnelly, a 1977 alumnus, majored in government and international studies as student in Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters. He was graduated from the Law School in 1981 and has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2006. This will be Donnelly’s first term in the Senate, and he joins 1922 alumnus David Clark as one of only two Notre Dame graduates to be elected to the Senate.

John Gearin, an 1871 graduate, and Edward Carville, a 1909 alumnus, both were appointed to unexpired terms in the Senate. Gearin, from Oregon, served from 1905-07, and Carville, from Nevada, served from 1945-47.